


Beginning to Thaw

by Emeraldsoleil



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Bedsharing, Gen, Post-Movie: The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29595573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emeraldsoleil/pseuds/Emeraldsoleil
Summary: A quiet few moments between Mulder and Scully after their rescue in Antarctica.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 9
Kudos: 63
Collections: X-Files Dialogue Fanfic Exchange (2021)





	Beginning to Thaw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sarie_Fairy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarie_Fairy/gifts).



> This is my entry for the XF Fanfic Dialog Exchange. My dialog to include was "Do it for me." 
> 
> Sarah, I hope you like it! I hope I did your prompt justice!
> 
> This work is unbetaed, so feel free to let me know if there are errors. Thanks for reading!

She laughed like a lunatic when he told her they were on the southern most continent. It bubbled up and out of her, unbidden and uncontrollable and she looked at him like he'd grown another head. "Antarctica? Come on, Mulder. There's no way."

"You were out there same as I was. You saw what I saw." Mulder's token argument, hoarsely whispered over the chapped, frost kissed curve of his lips, lacked most of its normal enthusiasm. Exhaustion sat heavy on his features; he was clearly too tired to argue his point.

"I don't..." But she did remember, she realized. Her recollections were diaphanous and fleeting, still intangible, but she recalled the cold, biting wind and the white, knife sharp line of the horizon bisecting her vision. Her skin held the touch memory of her partner's hands bundling her into gortex and down, cocooning her against the frigid air. The clothes had held onto the residual heat from his body, and it had burned like being buried in a pile of glowing coals. She remembered that.

"It doesn't matter. You're okay. Everything else can wait until we're back to civilization." He dropped his head against the mattress and winced as the movement sprouted new blooms of pain across the field of his body. He flinched re-actively when her slender fingers settled in his hair, but relaxed when she began combing them across his scalp in gentle, soothing passes.

"How long's it been since you slept?"

"Does the quick nap I had out on the tundra count?"

"What do you think?"

"I slept on the plane over. I kind of slept," he corrected. "C130s aren't really built for comfort."

"Well, that floor can't be very comfortable either." Scully tugged gently on his hair, dragging her body deeper into the mattress until her back met the wall. "Come on, get up here."

"Scully..." Mulder began,

"Doctor's orders, Agent Mulder. You need sleep. I need sleep. Restful sleep. Get up here so I can go to sleep without worrying you're going to pass out and crack your head on the floor."

He made a half-hearted attempt to stand, face twisted in pain. "I'll just go back to my room. Let you sleep."

"Mulder, you're not going make it back to your room. You can barely move as it is. Now get up here." This time, she found enough energy to infuse her words with just enough steel that he knew not to argue. 

It was a struggle, getting him arranged on the mattress beside her. Every movement was clumsy and clearly caused him pain, but eventually they settled together, bending around and with one another in the dip of the mattress. She drew the wool blanket up over them both, tucking the edges behind her partner to hold in the warmth. Minutes later, the rhythmic sound of Mulder's breathing drew her down into sleep. 

She dreamed of the cold. Cold so deep and black it penetrated the deepest parts of her, slowly leaching all the light and color from the world. It was soul consuming. Deep down, she knew she would never be warm again. 

Just when she was certain even her thoughts themselves were destined to freeze, she woke. 

She woke up hot, nearly overheating, and to the weight of Mulder's body pressing her into the mattress. He'd curled in on himself during their nap, draping half his body across her petite form. His head lay on her chest, his ear pressed to her heartbeat, and every exhale was a hot wind down the neckline of her borrowed scrubs. The weight of him was more reassuring than uncomfortable, and she was content to remain until he woke. She still didn't understand what happened to them, not beyond the very basics and half-remembered moments she wasn't sure she could trust, but it had clearly taken its toll on Mulder. 

Like she had earlier, her fingers combed soothingly through his hair. She drifted with her thoughts, counting time by each pass of her hand across his scalp, until he began to stir. 

"Hey, Scully?" he asked, voice hoarse and cracking.

"Yeah?"

"Did you get the number of that truck?" 

"Not this time, unfortunately." Her hand paused in it's journey back to the nape of his neck. "How are you feeling?" 

His body rippled against hers as he attempted to put distance between then, but a gasp of pain arrested his progress and he relaxed back against her. "I realize this is an awkward position we find ourselves in, partner, but I, uh...I can't move." 

"I'm not surprised. Your muscles are tied in knots. I'll try to get the nurse in her to give you a muscle relaxer. Until then, don't try to move to much. You might tear something." She tugged on his hair again. "Doctor's orders."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered. The silence grew heavy, curling around them in a cloud of frustration.

"What is it, Mulder?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

The silence grew heavier while he thought, and when he spoke, she could feel the tension in his words skating across her skin. "When I think about everything that had to go perfectly according to plan so I could find you, I want to throw up. You were supposed to die out there, Scully. Frozen to death and ripped apart from the inside, where know one would ever find you, where I would never know what happened to you. They meant for you to die out there."

"But I didn't. I didn't. You found me, Mulder. You found me, just like you always do. "  


"I won't always," he protested. "Statistically, I can't. And our luck almost ran out this time. They nearly won."

"Hey," she said, pressing her hand to his jaw and lifting his face to meet her eyes. "I'm still not sure exactly what happened out there. My memories are....strange, if they're real at all. It's going to take awhile for me to process it all, but I will never doubt that you went way above and beyond the call of duty here." 

"One day it's not going to be enough." 

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, you can't give up, Mulder. I can believe in you for both of us, but I need you to promise you aren't going to give up." 

"It's getting harder, Scully. It gets harder every time they use you as a pawn in their game."

"Do it for me, Mulder. Do it because I need the answers that we both know are out there. If you can't do it because you think you can't keep fighting, then do it for me, and I'll keep fighting for both of us in the meantime. Deal?" 

"Yeah, okay. But can I take a time out on fighting the conspiracy until we get back to DC? I'm damn tired, Scully." 

Scully smiled and pressed a thankful kiss to his hairline. "Go back to sleep, Mulder. The conspiracy will still be here when you wake up." 


End file.
